By Mursi Saad El-Din I have just finished reading one of the recent publications of the American University in Cairo Press. This is The Egyptian Theatre in the Nineteenth Century, 1799-1882 by PC Sadgrove, senior lecturer in Arabic studies at Manchester University. Sadgrove is no newcomer to Egyptian life, since he served in Egypt as a diplomat. The book is yet another addition to the AUC series on the arts in Egypt, a series which constitutes an archive of sorts of the arts in the country, which includes titles such as Viola Shafik's Popular Egyptian Cinema: Gender, Class and Nation. Uncovering previously unexplored archival material for his book was no easy task for Sadgrove. In the preface he writes, "The historian of the early days of the modern Egyptian theatre faces the dilemma of a severe shortage of source material". Most of his information came from memoirs by writers, and collections of European-language newspapers. But in the words of the author, "using newspapers as a source it is unfortunately possible to give in any detail only a semi-accurate history of the European theatre in Egypt from 1868 and of the Arabic theatre from about 1876." The book is divided into five chapters, an introduction and three appendixes. The first chapter is the introduction which gives a bird's eye view of the history of the modern European and Arab Egyptian theatre from 1798 up to the year 1882. That is from the French occupation to the British one. The second chapter is devoted to the traditional Arabic drama, karagoz and farces. Before the arrival of the French there were in Egypt various forms of crude street drama: shadow theatre karagoz or khayal-al-zill, puppet shows, jesters, mime artists and strolling players. The comedies of the latter, bore, in the words of the author "the closest resemblance of modern drama; the simple stories they told are reminiscent of pantomime or Italian commedia dell'arte." The comedies were often satirical by nature, the butt of the satire being the petty bureaucracy with its tax collectors, who exploited the peasantry. Chapter three deals with the European theatre in Egypt. In the history of modern Egyptian theatre, the author claims, it was the European theatre, performed in French or Italian that was paramount and was given precedence by the authorities, not the nascent Arabic theatre. Theatres were built in Cairo and Alexandria for the performance of European drama and opera, and vast sums of money were given by the government to support visiting companies from Europe. This became a tradition in Egypt, especially in the case of the Italian opera. It is known that Mohamed Ali, who spoke only Turkish, was delighted with the performances of Italian opera that he saw. It was he who introduced the Muslim ulemas to the theatre. Chapter four deals with the first experiment in Arabic drama by James Sannu. The author believes that it was the European theatre that inspired Arab writers, both in Egypt and Syria, to start a new form of dramatic activity, thus breaking away from traditional forms of Arab drama. The author gives a chronological account of the theatrical attempts of both James and Yaqub Sannu, known by his pen name Abu Naddara. This is a fascinating account of Sannu's cafe concerts in Ezbekieh Gardens. The fifth and last chapter, entitled "The Syrian Arab Theatre in Egypt (1872-1882)", deals with the arrival in Egypt of Syrian journalists. It seems that Khedive Ismail had given annual subsidies to some of the leading Arabic periodicals in Beirut whose editors showed a keen interest in the theatre. This was followed by the contributions of the Selim Al-Naqqash theatre, the theatres of Adib Ishaq and Yusuf Al-Khayat. For over three years, Syrian Christians monopolised the Arabic stage in Egypt, until the arrival of Abdallah Al-Nadim who formed the Muslim Charitable Society for poor pupils who presented plays. The chapter ends with the emergence of a theatre by Sulayman Al-Kardani who for the first time had women in his troupe. It was with this troupe that Salama Hijazi gave his first performance at the age of 30. The audience at the show included the khedive and his retinue.
